


echo in the mirror

by isthepartyover



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Mystery, Persona 4 Spoilers, Persona 5 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 18:18:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17965655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isthepartyover/pseuds/isthepartyover
Summary: volleygay to fashun, sweaty: hi. akira hasn’t shown up for class today, yesterday, and saturday, and i’ve been calling and texting and i went over sunday and today and nobody answered.A few months after everything ends, after the dust has settled and Akira has gone back home, something strange starts to happen in the little town of Inaba.People are going missing on rainy nights. Again.With the help of some new allies and old friends, can the Phantom Thieves solve the mystery and save their leader before everything goes terribly, terribly wrong?





	echo in the mirror

**Author's Note:**

> well, this is officially the most fun (and longest) fic ive ever written.
> 
> big big shoutouts to retro and shewolf for the lovely art for this fic (youll see them below, theyre so good), and for raaj for betaing this monster

The Monabus is filled with noise and people, all of the Phantom Thieves yelling and singing and celebrating, Makoto speeding away from the scene with a sharp, wicked grin.

Akira’s high on it all, feeling light and happy and free for the first time since...well, he can’t exactly remember, not when Futaba’s hanging off his shoulders and laughing at Yusuke’s complaining over not being able to draw, not with Ann and Haru cheering Makoto on, loud and squealing, and _especially_ not with Ryuji next to him, bright and beaming like a second sun, singing along to the song playing on the radio off-key and warbling.

Akira loves him, loves this boy that’s stopped singing in favor of looking around at their friends, looking just as filled with love for them all as Akira was, that sun-brightness becoming soft and sweet, and Akira has never wanted to kiss him more.

He’s moving forward before he realizes it, close enough now that he can see the flecks of gold in his eyes, see the way they crinkle along with his smile, and _holy shit_ Ryuji's leaning in too-

They're a hair's breadth away when the seat beneath him vanishes and then he's falling, falling just like he had after Sae's palace, fast and dizzying, and he can't see the Monabus anymore or those warm eyes, can't hear anything but the pounding of his heart in his ears, and there's suddenly a boy, blue hair falling over his grey eyes and headphones dangling around his neck, falling with Akira, arms outstretched as if he was trying to fly, and he looks so achingly familiar for a long moment that's gone as soon as it comes.

He looks up, stares right at Akira, a look of grim determination on his face, and even though he says nothing, Akira feels a sense of urgency, of caution, of fear.

A warning.

Akira wants to shout, wants to ask what the boy wants, what this warning could mean, but then he hits the ground and then he's sitting in an all too familiar dark room, cold steel pressed painfully against his forehead and a terribly innocent clicking noise sounding-

Akira shot upright in his bed, panting and shaking, disoriented for the longest moment before he felt the brush of soft fur against his arm, making him jump once more.

"Hey, hey, it's just me," Morgana said, nuzzling his hand again, and Akira let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"S-sorry."

"It's okay. Nightmare?"

The boy’s face and that strange familiarity he’d felt flashed in his mind, and Akira was almost tempted to tell Morgana about the dream.

Almost.

He shook his head instead, muttering, "I don't know," and Morgana took the hint and curled up in his usual spot beside him again.

"Okay. Just know that I’m here if you need me," he yawned, and Akira nodded mutely before laying back down himself, ignoring the tacky feeling of cold sweat on his arms, pulling his blanket up more to warm himself.

It was just a dream, nothing to get so worked up about.

But he had never felt more lonely, more isolated and scared, even with Morgana pressed up next to him, an undercurrent of _wrongness_ making him nauseated and wide awake.

His fingers itched to reach out for his phone, to call one of his friends and let them talk him down and back into sleep.

But it was late, and aside from Futaba, he didn’t think anyone would be up, and he didn’t want to bother any of them with something as simple as a bad dream.

Akira was so busy trying to calm himself that he didn't hear the soft crackle of static emerging from his television set, or the slight glow of yellow eyes in the snowy screen.

***

**_totally not the phantom thieves (7/5/2017 10:43 am)_ **

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _ryuji put ur phone away and pay attention_

 

 **_official_bolt_ ** _: ann_

 

 **_official_bolt:_ ** _ann pls tell me how knowing how much it makes to make 1¥ or what time breakins happen will help me pass entrance exams_

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _you never know what’s on the exams til you sit them, ryuji._

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _also futaba i swear to god please stop changing my name_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _ >:3c _

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _rip ryuji_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _listen makoto u know it’s tru_

 

 **_l33thaxxor_ ** _: gonna need a little...convincing to change it back if u catch my drift ;)_

 

 **_strict mom_ ** _: akira please help you’re the only one who can control her_

 

 **_official_bolt:_ ** _good luck he’s just as bad as her_

 

 **_official_bolt_ ** _: but hey kira how tf did u get top in ur class w all these tangents i cant focusssssss_

 

 **_fun mom_ ** _: ryuji! have you tried using one of those fidget cubes or just a simple stress ball? the stress ball really helped me while we were helping akira at the beginning of the year!_

 

 **_fun mom_ ** _: oh! why thank you futaba, i like this name（˶′◡‵˶）_

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _haru...._

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _HA_

 

 **_official_bolt:_ ** _RIP MAKOTKRN_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _RYUJI JUST GOT HIT IN THE FACE W CHALK HAHA_

 

 **_inari:_ ** _can we all please quiet down i must paint while this image is fresh in my mind and you all are ruining it with your incessant babbling_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _RIP RYUJI covered in chalk dust and welts why don't you get sum1 to kiss em better_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _also there’s this thing called mute inari :p_

 

 **_inari:_ ** _how does one do that_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _lmao i bet we all know who ryuji wants 2 kiss his booboos_

 

 **_officialbolt:_ ** _ill kill you both don't u dare not here_

 

 **_l33thaxxor_ ** _: :3c_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _:3c_

 

 **_fun mom:_ ** _oh???? who???_

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _nobody_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _pmed u >:3c _

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _kira im killig ur sis say bye while u have the chance_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _he left me on read i don’t want his bye_

 

 **_fun mom:_ ** _AW RYUJI!! (❤ω❤)_

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _i hate all of you can someone change the subject_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _hey speaking of my dear not-brother where is that loser_

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _futaba i s2g_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _what it’s a legit q he’s been quiet lately_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _well. quieter than usual_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _ill see_

 

_***_

 

 **_Private message to:_ ** _you know :3c_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _kiraaaaaaa makochans bullying meeeeeeeeeeeee i need my partner in criiiiiiiiiime_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _n ur bf wants u B3c_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _dont leave me on read you BITCH_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _rude as hell im going to fite u when ur back watch the FUCK OUT_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _fine im telling dad no beans for you >:c _

 

**_***_ **

 

**_totally not the phantom thieves_ **

 

 **_inari:_ ** _how does one silence this device_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _you can't kill me im too powerful_

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _yusuke, hit the three dots and then mute channel_

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _and the rest of you, i wont help you study if you keep this up_

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _akira’s probably been studying, like we all should be_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _but mooooooooom_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _it's lunch break now mako <3 _

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _also futaba u binsh you don’t need help studying_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _:*_

 

 **_fashion, sweaty:_ ** _ur right tho i haven’t seen aki around here for a bit_

 

 **_fashion, sweaty:_ ** _have u heard from him ryuji_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _also dr salt o smash or tap_

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _smash_

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _and he’s been studying n workin a bunch dont u rmbr he said so last wk_

 

 **_inari_ ** _: it didn’t work I am still receiving notifications_

 

 **_fun mom:_ ** _oh I haven’t heard from Akira since golden week last month_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _neither have i :3c_

 

 **_l33thaxxor:_ ** _hm. interesting since the jerk just left me on read >:3c _

 

 **_strict mom:_ ** _that is pretty interesting, Ryuji. Tell me, are you sure it was here or in a private chat between the two of you?_

 

 **_offical_bolt:_ ** _i hate all of you_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty:_ ** _except for you-know-who_

 

 **_official_bolt:_ ** _hdskjhglfskg_

 

***

 

The classroom of Yasogami High year three, room two was more restless than usual that afternoon.

 

Or maybe it was always like that, and Akira was just now noticing; the ability to ignore the chatter and whispers and gossip that he’d gained throughout the past couple years not working through his haze of exhaustion, sleep not coming easily, and the strange nightmare appearing every time he did, making irritation and a awful, terrible throbbing settle in his head.

 

Students didn’t even bother quieting down during lectures, the low rumble of chitchat continuing throughout the day and rising between classes and breaks.

 

It was all too loud, too constant and _distracting_ , and if he didn’t need to keep his grades and attendance up, didn’t need to make sure he was not only keeping up but staying at the top of his class so he could get out of this tiny, self-absorbed town and back where he was actually _wanted_ (or was he, actually? Nobody had reached out in ages, he supposed it was his own fault for not replying in the group chat, but…) he’d have left the second he’d realized that today was going to be intolerable.

 

But Akira had to stay, had to at least try and pay attention if he wanted to get out of here, especially with summer break on the horizon and his parents (even though they were never home in the first place) looking for excuses to stop him from going to Tokyo for the holiday.

 

He’d thought, foolishly, naively, that after everything that had happened the last year, after changing the world’s cognition, after stopping a goddamn _god_ , that Inaba would’ve changed, even just a little, something to give him a small respite from the constant fighting he’s had to do.

 

But Akira had never been that lucky.

 

When Shiho found him lying on his back in the far corner of the roof after classes had let out, she didn’t say anything, only made a soft, empathetic noise as she sat down beside him, the first respite from the sea of noise he’d been struggling through all day.

 

Finding Shiho Suzui in his neighboring class was the only good thing about returning to Inaba. A warm, kind face among the curious but fearful stares of people he’d known his whole life was the only thing keeping him afloat most days.

 

“Why is everything so _much_ sometimes?” Akira asked, still fixating on the clouds above, growing heavier and darker by the minute.

 

“I wish I knew.” Shiho sighed, lying next to him. “Would’ve made that whole thing last year easier to deal with.”

 

“Mmm.”

 

  
There was a long stretch of silence then, and Akira closed his eyes, inhaling the cool, crisp air and the smell of the incoming storm, trying to center his frayed nerves in the relative silence up above the town.

 

“Were they talking about me again?” he couldn’t help but ask, voice coming out dry and flat.

 

“Mm? Oh. Well…”

 

“You can tell me. I’m used to it.”

 

“It really sucks that you are.”

 

“Yeah, well, when a sleazeball politician screws you over for stopping him from assaulting someone, you’ve got to get used to a couple shitty things.”

 

Akira’s voice cracked as he spoke, and he winced as a hot wave of shame flooded through him.

 

Shiho, thankfully, didn’t remark on that, only leaning her head into the gap between his shoulder and head, giving him a small moment to swallow his bitterness before speaking again.

 

“It was mostly about the Midnight Channel today.”

 

Akira leaned his head into hers, grateful for the comfort that came from the simple touch, and tried to remember where he’d heard those words before.

 

“Must be something real interesting to get everyone to stop talking about the town’s biggest disappointment.”

 

“Stop that. Don’t make me call Ann,” Shiho scolded gently.

 

“You’d call her anyway, you guys are disgusting,” Akira grumbled, teasingly, nudging his friend.

 

“And you’re a gay, bitter coward. Why don’t I just call _Ryuji_ instead?” Shiho cooed, snickering when he elbowed her again.

 

“I’m not going to ask him out when he’s literally three hours away by train, _and_ the fact he’s probably-”

 

“Point is! None of us like hearing you talk shit about yourself when it’s nowhere near true, so shut the _fuck_ up, Kurusu.”

 

Akira said nothing, and with a smug lilt to her voice, Shiho continued, “Anyway, so the Midnight Channel’s apparently back.”

 

“And what’s that?”

 

“You’re the local, you’re telling me you don’t know?”

 

“I dunno. Sounds familiar?”

 

Shiho scoffed. “Some great criminal mastermind you are.”

 

“My conviction was overturned, I’ll thank you to remember.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Well, lucky for you, I heard just a little more than just a name.”

 

“Are you going to tell me, or…”

 

“Are you going to shut up and let me talk, or…”

 

Akira was quiet and Shiho laughed, sitting up and looking down from the dark sky to him.

 

“Apparently, on rainy nights at midnight, if you stare into a blank TV screen while you’re alone, you can see your soulmate.”

 

Akira scoffed, sitting up as well, injecting as much venom in his tone as he could. “ _Really_ ? _That‘s_ what everyone’s been talking about all day? I remember that rumor from middle school.”

 

Shiho tilted her head. “Did you ever try it?”

 

“No. It’s stupid, why would I have?”

 

“Hm.” Shiho stood then, looking back up again. “Well then, let’s see for ourselves tonight.”

 

Akira looked up as well, grabbing for her hand and pulling himself up as well. “It’s not raining.”

 

Just as he spoke, something large, cold and wet hit him square in the face, and Shiho began to laugh at what must have been a utterly stunned look on his face.

 

“Come on, let’s head inside. We can head to Aiya’s if you think you can do it this time.” she smiled, and despite the rain and the lingering annoyance and stress from the day, Akira found himself smiling as well, thankful that he had one bright thing in the hell that was being back in this shittly little town.

 

***

 

“Hey, Kanji-nii?” Nanako asked, tugging at a long, loose strand of her hair, staring at the book in front of her intently.

 

“Huh? Oh, what’s up?” Kanji hummed, looking up briefly from the project he was working on for his next class and grimacing at the sight of the homework spread out in front of her. “If it’s about your homework, I told ya I’m not great with that, sorry.”

 

“Oh, no, it’s not that.” Nanako laughed, looking up from her book with one of those easy, reassuring smiles that Kanji could only assume she’d picked up from Yu at some point, still fiddling with her hair. “Do you believe in soulmates?”

 

Kanji felt heat rise in his face, and Nanako giggled.

 

“That’s...uh, that’s kinda a big question, kid,” Kanji stammered, setting down his knitting and scratching absently at his cheek. “Why’re you askin’?”

 

“Well, everyone at school was talking about this TV channel where you can see your soulmate, and I was just wondering if that kind of thing was real.” Nanako hummed.

 

Of course the daughter of a detective would have a healthy dose of skepticism, hell, Kanji himself was a little skeptical, something about a TV showing your soulmate sounding way too familiar, almost like...

 

“The name of that channel...it wouldn’t happen to be the Midnight Channel, would it?” Kanji asked, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. _It couldn’t be, they took care of that bullshit six years ago-_

 

“Yeah! How’d you know?” Nanako chirped, clearly delighted, and Kanji’s chest grew tight, awful memories of fog and pain and fear filling his head.

 

“I, uh...it was a thing when I was in school,” he managed to stutter out, trying to take deep breaths like Naoto had taught him to calm his occasional panic.

 

“Oh, really?” Nanako asked, before frowning at him, looking concerned. “Are you okay?”

 

“Ah…” Kanji sighed, weighing his options as he continued to try and keep himself calm. He could tell her the truth, tell her to be careful until he could gather everyone up again, she was older now and she had been involved in the whole mess last time, however brief.

 

But then, what had happened to the poor girl was traumatic at _best_ , and Kanji never wanted this bright, smiling ray of a girl to remember the hurt and confusion of that month she spent in the hospital, and to know that it’d been caused by a monster she’d probably seen as an uncle, or even another father.

 

Plus, Yu’d kill him if he ever found out Kanji had told Nanako, and facing his senpai’s wrath wasn’t something he ever wanted to do.

 

“‘M fine. Just-bad memories, okay?” he told her instead, giving Nanako what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Kids’re stupid when it comes to that kinda stuff.”

 

Nanako’s frown continued. “So...soulmates aren’t real?”

 

“I didn’t say that, did I?” Kanji huffed, scratching his head, smiling when the girl perked up. “They’re as real as you make ‘em, yanno?”

 

“...not really?

 

“Well, they’re not always perfect, like a story,” Kanji said, picking back up his knitting and starting back up on it, untangling his thoughts like the yarn, giving his hands something to work out this new nervous energy with.

 

“They’re not?”

 

“Yeah, kid. Ya gotta put work into them. Make sure the other person knows how much you care, and work to overcome whatever bumps’re in the way. So, there’s no way in hell a picture-perfect relationship like in movies ‘n books are gonna work in the end, y’see? You’ve gotta _make_ it work if you want it to last.”

 

It was silent for a long moment, and Kanji looked up to see Nanako looking at her book again, thoughtful.

 

“I think I get it. So...just because something like the Midnight Channel says a person’s your soulmate, it doesn’t really mean anything until you give it a try with that person?” she asked.

 

“Yeah. Nobody can tell you how your life’s gonna go, y’hear? You make that decision. Especially when it comes to love. If you’re not happy with someone, and it just ain’t workin’ out no matter how hard you try, then nobody can tell you, ‘specially not some dumb TV channel, that that’s who you’ve gotta be with.” Kanji nodded.

 

He looked up to see Nanako giving him a soft, almost shy smile.

 

“Thank you, Kanji-nii.” she told him, and Kanji shook his head.

 

“Anytime, kid.”

 

There was another long moment of silence, and Kanji finally gave in to his anxious need to tell someone that the Midnight Channel was back.

 

“‘M gonna make a call, want a snack or something?” he asked, setting down his knitting once again. Nanako shook her head, back to working on her homework, and Kanji stood, already dialing.

 

“Kanji? What’s up?” Yu asked, picking up as Kanji made it outside the shop.

 

“The Midnight Channel’s back.” he said, unable to help the way his voice shook.

 

“.... _Shit_ ,” Yu swore, something clattering on his end, also sounding shaken by the news. “Tell me everything.”

 

***

 

**new group message: bi bi bis (7/7/2017 4:56 pm)**

 

 **volleygay:** _(attch IMG_3046, IMG_3048)_

 

 **volleygay:** _he did it_

 

 **official_bolt:** _jesus effin christ kira_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _is he even alive in that last one??_

 

 **surprise bitch:** _bet you thought you’d seen the last of me_

 

 **surprise bitch:** _i conquered the big bang burgers and now i’ve done the rainy day aiyas beef bowl_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _jesus christ you meme_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _first anyone but your bf hears from you in weeks and it’s this_

 

 **official_bolt:** _ANN STOP HES NOT MY BF_

 

 **official_bolt:** _kira dont listen to her shes being obnoxious_

 

 **volleygay:** _hes in a food coma again pls leave a message after the tone_

 

 **volleygay:** _also ryuji put em up ill fight u for my gf’s honor she’s never once been obnoxious in her life_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _my hero_

 

 **official_bolt:** _gay_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _thanks_

 

 **volleygay:** _i know_

 

 **surprise bitch:** _yes_

 

 **official_bolt:** _yall the worst_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _and you love us_

 

 **volleygay:** _aint no escaping the bisaster club_

 

 **official_bolt:** _tghfdkjg_

 

 **_fashun, sweaty_ ** _has renamed the chat to_ **_bisaster club_ ** _!_

 

 **official_bolt:** _hsfgj;sdkflds_

 

 **_surprise bitch:_ ** _wait_

 

 **volleygay:** _:D <3 _

 

 **official_bolt:** _t h e w o r s t_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _*blows kiss* shiho, call me when ur home?_

 

 **volleygay:** _give me 5 to put down my stuff, just got here_

 

***

 

 **private message with:** official_bolt **(7/7/2017 6:23 pm)**

 

 **official_bolt:** _anYwAY kira u comin back to the pt chat nytime soon? tabas bein a mnace and only u can stop her_

 

 **official_bolt:** _or encourage her_

 

 **official_bolt:** _makos gttn rl mad but its kina funny if u ask me_

 

 **official_bolt:** _but evr1 misses u_

 

 **official_bolt:** _got called out the other day bc apparently im the only1 u talk to?_

 

 **official_bolt:** _what’s up w that?_

 

 **official_bolt:** _well. either way._

 

 **official_bolt:** _cant wait for summer when we can b all 2gether again_

 

Ryuji rolled over in his bed, staring at the blinking cursor on his screen and biting his lip, debating sending anything else.

 

Akira’s silence had been worrying him.

 

Sure, he didn’t usually speak a whole lot, but lately, it was practically radio silence.

 

It reminded him of November, of cold, long nights and worry and fear and pain. Of catching dark purple bruises out of the corner of his eye. Of something scary, something empty in his best friend’s eyes.

 

Of realizing he was in love in possibly the worst way possible.

 

 _Fuck_.

 

Ryuji groaned and set down his phone on his chest, where he’d be able to grab it quickly if Akira ever did reply, and balled his fists over his eyes.

 

He’d seemed _okay_ before they’d dropped him off at home in Inaba, and the brief time they’d been able to see each other over Golden Week. And now...

 

He felt the need to do _something_ , anything he could to help Akira, because something felt so _wrong_ about the situation, just like it had before, but now nothing was sure, and he was hundreds of miles away from where he needed to be.

 

Goddamn, this _sucked_.

 

Ryuji picked up his phone again, biting his lip as he typed out one more message, before plugging his phone in and settling in for bed.

 

 **official_bolt** : _hey wanna skype tmoro? havent talked rlly in a while, have we?_

 

*******

 

 **private message with:** volleygay **(7/7/2017 10:38 pm)**

 

 **volleygay:** _dont forget the midnight channel tonight!!!_

 

***

 

_Falling._

 

_Or is it something else?_

 

_There’s definitely air, but the familiar rush that comes with a fall is gone._

 

_A strange feeling envelops him instead, both familiar and not, dizzying and powerful and overwhelming-_

 

_Almost on pure instinct, when the ground finally comes, he hits it running._

 

_***_

 

The first thing Ryuji did when he woke up was check his phone, hope making him more awake than he ever had been after his alarm went off.

 

But there was nothing, not even the slightest indication that Akira’d even seen his messages, and Ryuji felt his energy immediately plummet back down to exhaustion.

 

He almost wanted to call the day a wash already, not leave his bed and wait for a reply, but he had classes to go try and pay attention to if he wanted to really start making a good life for himself and more importantly, his mother.

 

Groaning, he pulled himself out of bed, scratching his head and looking around for his uniform, keeping his phone close as he got ready just in case Akira had just been asleep the night before when he texted, and would reply the second he got up as he had done the year before.

 

The reply never came.

 

***

 

_He doesn’t know how long he’s been in this strange world._

 

_Time passes in an odd, familiar way, fluid and dream-like, and a thick fog covers everything, filling his lungs and making it impossible to tell where he is or where he’s going._

 

_It makes it hard to think, hard to remember why he’d come here, what this place reminded him of, even who he was._

 

_Rationally, he knew that it should be terrifying, feeling his memories being covered in this awful fog, but it only strengthened his resolve._

 

 _Something was trying to stop him, whether it be the world itself or someone else, and he wanted- no,_ needed _\- to know what it was._

 

_So he kept wandering, pushing through the fog, straining his ears to hopefully hear something besides the clattering of subway cars all around him._

 

_***_

 

 **private message to:** fashun, sweaty **(7/11/2017, 3:48 pm)**

 

 **volleygay:** _something’s wrong_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _hi?_

 

 **volleygay:** _hi. akira hasn’t shown up for class today, yesterday, and saturday, and i’ve been calling and texting and i went over sunday and today and nobody answered._

 

 **volleygay:** _im really worried, ann, he’s been so sad lately and it’s reminding me of...yknow_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _oh fuck_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _hang a sec bb lemme ask ryuji if he’s heard from him_

 

 **volleygay:** _?? why would he have heard from him if i haven’t?_

 

*******

 

 **Private message to:** offical_bolt **(7/11/2017, 4:03 pm)**

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _have you heard from akira since friday?_

 

 **official_bolt:** _y_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _ <scrn_4515> _

 

 **official_bolt:** _shit_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _yeah. nd he messages you when he hasn’t talked to the rest of us in the pt chat in like a month, so. Heard from him?_

 

 **official_bolt:** _no_

 

 **official_bolt:** _messaged him but no reply_

 

 **official_bolt:** _fuck_

 

 **official_bolt:** _fuck ann!!!!_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _i kno bb :/_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _call taba imma coach shiho into picking a lock_

 

 **official_bolt:** _k_

 

 **official_bolt:** _wait what abt his parents????_

 

 **official_bolt:** _cant they let her in or cant she ask them_

 

 **official_bolt:** _like i kno kria doesnt talk bt them but_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _shiho says shes never met them_

 

 **official_bolt:** _what_

 

 **official_bolt:** _Youve got to be kidding me_

 

 **official_bolt:** _Hes been there for months????_

 

 **official_bolt:** _How in the fuck_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _i kno???_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _ok she’s in_

 

 **official_bolt:** _ann???_

 

 **official_bolt:** _u can’t leave me hanging like this_

 

 **official_bolt:** _what’s in there is akira ok_

 

 **official_bolt:** _srs ann fucking reply_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _nobodys there_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _and it looks like nobody’s been there for days_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _or like weeks_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _shiho showed me on vid its rlly fucking creepy_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _like, the place is spotless, even aki’s room_

 

 **fashun, sweaty:** _the onlything that’s even slightly out of place is that his bedroom window’s open_

 

 **official_bolt:** _what the FUCK_

 

*******

 

**totally not the phantom thieves (7/11/2017, 5:53 pm)**

 

 **official_bolt:** _mtng a lb_

 

 **official_bolt:** _NOW_

 

*******

 

Ryuji was pacing the length of LeBlanc’s main floor, half-listening to Ann explain what she’d learned from Shiho that day, anger and fear and all sorts of bullshit emotions twisting his gut in a hard knot of anxiety.

 

A gentle hand clapping down on his shoulder was what stopped his pacing, and Ryuji looked up to see Sakura-san watching him with a concerned furrow in his brow.

 

“Could he have run away?” Makoto asked the room, and Ryuji turned to face her, mind wandering once again.

 

“I don’t think he would have,” he said, voicing his thoughts, making the group turn to him. “He would’ve told us, right? Or at least left some kind of clue, or i don’t know-”

 

“What about Morgana?” Haru asked, suddenly, and everyone looked at her.

 

“Oh my god,” Ann breathed, pulling out her phone and tapping a quick few buttons before setting it down on the table.

 

After a few rings, a familiar voice came from the tinny phone speakers. “Hello?”

 

“Shiho! Sorry to bug you again, you’re on speaker with everyone. We were talking about Akira and everything and Haru brought up something,” Ann started. “You didn’t happen to see Morgana anywhere, did you?”

 

Shiho snorted, and Ryuji saw a fond look pass over Ann’s face. “Oh, hi everyone! Wow, weird! I was just looking for him.”

 

“Any luck?”

 

“Um. Well, not really. I thought I saw him, but it was just one of the town strays, I think? He’s really fast, a-and none of my usual tactics are working. It’s like he’s avoiding me on purpose.”

 

“...usual tactics?” Makoto muttered, looking confused. Ryuji shook his head.

 

“He’s gotta be doin’ that,” he hissed, anger joining the anxiety and fear in his gut. “Why the _fuck_ -”

 

“I’ve got no idea,” Shiho sighed. “Akira mentioned he was grumpy because he’s been stuck inside since they moved, but I don’t see how that’d make him avoid me too.”

 

“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense,” Ann agreed, sighing.

 

“Yeah,” Shiho repeated, making a small, pained noise before speaking again. “I should head back home before it gets too late. I’ll let you guys know if I see anything about either of them?”

 

“Please do,” Haru chimed in.

 

“I’ll ask my sister to contact that detective you mentioned tomorrow. Dojima-san, was that right?” Makoto asked.

 

“Wait, what?” Ryuji asked, surprised, as Ann took Shiho off speaker to say her own goodbyes. “What’s this about a detective?”

 

Makoto fixed him with a disapproving glare, shaking her head as she explained. “Shiho contacted the father of one of the middle schoolers she helps tutor, who is a detective. We talked about this earlier.”

 

“I...I musta missed that. Sorry,” Ryuji muttered, sheepishly.

 

“...I missed that too,” Futaba piped up, shifting from her crouch atop the barstool, looking up from her laptop. “We’re...we’re worried, sorry.”

 

Makoto’s expression softened, and she shook her head before turning to Yusuke. “You really don’t have to make a missing persons poster.”

 

Yusuke hardly looked at her, scribbling on his sketchpad furiously. “Nonsense. I shall capture our great leader’s essence better than any photo could.”

 

Ryuji felt a tug on his jacket, and he looked over to see Futaba watching him, staring intently through her thick lenses.

 

“...We’ll find him, right?” she asked, sounding very much like the small, scared girl he’d met a year ago.

 

Ryuji put his arm around her and pulled her close, letting Futaba bury her face into his chest. “‘Course. He’ll be fine.”

 

She said nothing, just nodded into his shirt.

 

“We’ll go to Inaba ourselves if we have to,” he continued, unaware that he’d caught the rest of the Thieves’ attention. “Only a week left of school, then there’ll be nothin’ stoppin us, yeah?”

 

Futaba nodded again, looking up from his shirt and over to Sojiro, who was finishing up a fresh pot of coffee nearby.

 

“We can go, right?” she asked, and Sojiro looked up and around the room at everyone else, who were all looking at the three at the bar, determination and fire in all of their expressions.

 

A small, soft smile grew on his face as he looked back at Futaba. “Not like I could stop you kids anyway. I might as well go along to make sure you don’t get into too much trouble.”

 

The room erupted in cheers, and Futaba reached over the counter to hug Sojiro.

 

Ryuji almost missed the soft “thanks, dad,” from Futaba underneath all the noise.

 

***

 

_“Inaba Police Department, Detective Dojima speaking.”_

 

The voice over the line was professional and chrisp, albeit a little worn sounding, and Sae felt a little hope that she’d finally be talking to an officer that might be able to help Akira.

 

“Hello, Detective. My name is Niijima Sae, are you available to discuss an important matter with me?”

 

 _“...you’re calling about that Kurusu kid, aren’t you?”_ Dojima asked, surprising Sae.

 

“...yes, I am. How did you-“

 

“ _Just a hunch, Niijima-san. We detectives are full of them. Plus, Suzui-chan told me to expect a call,”_ he joked, voice fractionally warmer.

 

“...I see.” Sae smiled.

 

“ _Wasn’t expecting such a powerful lawyer like yourself, ma’am. No offense,”_ he said, surprising Sae again. So, he’d either looked her up or already knew about her. She was liking this detective more and more.

 

“Kurusu-kun is a good kid,” she said, testing the waters a bit. He _was_ part of the department that had arrested and proceeded in charging Akira, after all.

 

 _“He sure is. I’m glad you got that charge against him cleared. So, what do you want to know? I’ve got someone asking around, seeing if we can dig up anything, though…”_ Dojima said, trailing off a bit.

 

 _“_ Though?” she prompted.

 

“ _...it’s nothing. Just another hunch.”_

 

 _“_ Does this hunch have to do with the series of kidnapping cases five years ago?”

 

_“Heh. You are just as good as they say, Niijima-san.”_

 

“Compared to some of my other cases, it was nothing more than child’s play to find.”

 

_“I suppose the first one was a bigwig TV anchor from over there. Well. Alrighty, then. If you have that information and are still calling, there must be something you want me to do.”_

 

Sae felt her lips curl up into a genuine smile. “There is, actually.”

 

***

 

_Eventually, things begin to take shape._

 

_A wall here and there; concrete, graffitied, and crumbled; forming winding hallways that were lit faintly in blue._

 

 _Metal bars start to interrupt the walls, rusty and crooked and_ familiar _in an awful way that he still can’t place, making his stomach churn with every step._

 

_The fear finally starts hitting him, making continuing difficult, his hands shaking worse and worse as he moved through the labyrinth._

 

_Finally, it became too much, the unexplained anxiety and terror finally making him turn around, intending on leaving, of trying to find his way back to wherever he came from another way._

 

_But once he turned, he found himself somewhere entirely different._

 

_The slim hallways had turned into a large, rounded room, a loudspeaker hanging from the ceiling, emitting the blue glow lighting the place, and a pair of guillotines standing to the side, metal blades gleaming._

 

_The metal bars formed individual rooms along the walls, all numbered, and he turned to see that it seemed he’d come from one of them, the dulled number above reading a simple zero._

 

_He turned again, and suddenly, he wasn’t alone._

 

_Standing in between the two guillotines was a slim figure, dressed in black and red, watching him with gleaming yellow eyes, large blue-black wings moving slightly behind him._

 

_“Hello again,” the figure hummed, stepping forwards out of the shadows. “I had begun to think I’d have to come find you.”_

 

_“Come find me? What…?”_

 

_The figure shook his head, seeming slightly disappointed. “But, your cowardice has brought you here, just as expected.”_

 

_“Cowardice? I...no-”_

 

_“What happened to you, Trickster? What happened to the resolve that brought about our contract?”_

 

_“Trickster? I don’t-”_

 

 _“_ Don’t _deny me now, I’m_ just _getting started,” the figure interrupts again, something close to fury filling their tone. “You stand here before me, after doing nothing but run for so long. Running from your feelings, your pains and anxieties, abandoning what was once everything to you.”_

 

_“I still don’t-” he began again, but stopped mid-sentence. The denial felt wrong, sickeningly so, especially when he couldn’t even remember-_

 

_The haze of the world he was in grew stronger and stronger, until he suddenly found himself on his knees, gasping for air, dizzy and confused and-_

 

_A hand tilted his chin up, and he found himself looking up at the mysterious person, who was smirking at him._

 

 _And then all at once,_ _it all_ clicked _._

 

The fog cleared from his mind, and Akira realized with a growing sense of horror that he was looking up at a corrupted version of his own reflection, twisted and merged with Arsene’s original form, the glowing red darkness that he’d seen on so many shadows before now pulsing like veins along .

 

“A-arsene?” he choked out, jerking backwards from the touch. “What-where..”

 

The demon laughed, watching him scrabble away. “See? Just as I said. A coward. Traitor to all the Thieves.”

 

“No, I-”

 

“You can’t hide anything from me, Fool. We are the same. I know you’re nothing but a scared, lost child, hiding from the power to change you readily accepted over a year ago.”

 

Akira felt a hot wave of shame fill him, choking him. No, this wasn’t right, this couldn’t be-

 

But it _was_ , it was all _true,_ all things he’d thought late at night or alone in cells just like the ones surrounding him-

 

“You never deserved the power you were given. Never was _worthy_ enough for it. And it was all proven at the end,” the yellow-eyed mirror version continued. “You could have saved him you know. Could have spared all of them, prevented everything.”

 

“Stop,” Akira heard himself beg, each word the thing spoke a knife in his heart, his thoughts echoing _it’s true, it’s all true, every single thing_ -

 

“Maybe if you had, they wouldn’t all _hate_ you. Would actually have given a damn enough to let you _stay_.”

 

“Stop!”

 

“Don’t hide from the truth, Fool. We are the same, after all.”

 

“NO! YOU’RE _NOT_ ME! YOU _CAN’T_ BE ME!” Akira shouted, shaking, and the strage version of himself grinned again, this time with malice, as dark shadows and blue flames begin enveloping him.

 

The shadows grew and grew, massive and monstrous and terrifying, eventually forming into something like Satanael, horned and winged, but also sharp and awful and discolored, diseased with the red veins throbbing over it.

 

“ **That’s right,** ” the giant, terrible being towering above him said, voice now an earth-rumbling roar. “ **I am the shadow, the true self. Now, prepare to die!** ”

 

And with that, it attacked.

 

_***_

 

“I thought you were too busy over summer, with that job and-“ Dojima started, stirring sugar into Nanako’s coffee, phone pressed between his cheek and shoulder.

 

“They said it was okay,” his nephew interrupted. “It was a surprise to me, too.”

 

“Hmmph. And what about-“

 

“I’m all caught up on my schoolwork, and you know my parents. They probably won’t even know I’m gone.”

 

“You did say just last week-”

 

“ _Uncle_. It’ll be fine. I miss you guys,” Yu admitted, and Dojima felt his suspicion melt away just a bit. He hadn’t been there in a long while, the kid was probably not only missing him and Nanako, but also...

 

“Stop interrupting me, kid. Show some respect,” he teased. Yu snorted and Dojima laughed back. “You know you’re always welcome here, I just don’t want you getting in trouble with Rin.”

 

“I can handle mom, uncle. I am in college now, after all.”

 

“If you say so. When’ll you be here?”

 

There was a long pause before Yu replied, almost hesitant, “Tomorrow?”

 

“Tomorrow?”

 

“I’m sorry, uncle, it’s so sudden, I know-”

 

Dojima _knew_ then, knew that Niijima-san was right, and he couldn’t help but smile as he cut off Yu’s apologies.

 

“What time? I’ll see who’s around to meet you.”

 

He could feel the relief coming from his nephew through the phone as he was told, “Thank you,” and his smile grew a bit wider as they finished up their conversation.  He hung up, listening to the gentle pattering of rain on the roof as he dialed another number.

 

Dojima knew he would have to stay up late that night to confirm it, but he couldn’t bring himself to mind.

 

After all, those kids had taken care of everything so long ago. He trusted them to do it again.

 

***

 

Futaba stared at her cursor, blinking at her almost impatiently on her monitor screen, and briefly considered putting her fist through it.

 

But the damn thing was _expensive_ , and it wasn’t the monitor’s fault she was upset and unfocused.

 

Akira had been missing for about ten days now (eleven? Futaba found she was paying less attention to the clock than she usually did) and there _still_ seemed to be no clue as to where and why he’d up and left, and stupid Mona wasn’t being any help.

 

Shiho had reported that she hadn’t even _seen_ the stubborn furry idiot around, and Futaba was going to kill him when they got over to Inaba tomorrow (today?? Whatever. Time was a meaningless concept).

 

She wanted to hack into the small town’s police system, satisfy her worry with knowledge and everything that Dojima guy knew so far about her not-really-but-basically brother, but the memory of Makoto and Sojiro’s withering look when she had brought up how _easy_ it would’ve been and Sojiro’s subsequent lecture on how she should trust this stranger and give them a chance to tell all of them before she broke several laws stopped her, leaving her with itchy fingers and a heartache that was about half as painful as the one she’d had after her mom died, but getting worse by the day.

 

Futaba slumped back in her desk chair, pulling the pillow she kept nearby close, chewing her lip a moment before pulling out her phone and pulling up a private message.

 

 **_Private message to:_ ** _surprise bitch_

 

_l33thaxxor: you’re a real jerk you know_

 

_l33thaxxor: like we’re all worried as hell you ass come the fuck back_

 

_l33thaxxor: idk what may have fucking happened but it’s been way too long and ypu betettr belive we’re coming to find you._

 

_l33thaxxor: if you’re trapped somewhere, i personally will utterly destroy whatever’s got you, and id bet the rest would do the same_

 

_l33thaxxor: i miss you_

 

_l33thaxxor: you remember how i said i was ok wo you? well.i didnt mean like this_

 

_l33thaxxor: come home asshat_

 

_l33thaxxor: and if you can’t well burn everything til you’re ok_

 

Futaba stared at her phone for a few more minutes, swallowing back the lump in her throat and sniffling, before a ping from her laptop distracted her.

 

She’d set up an alert to notify her of anything that might come up relating to Inaba, and Futaba pulled it over to her, eagerly opening up the article, blinking in disbelief.

 

“‘Risette calls off tour dates to return home to Yaso-Inaba’?” she muttered to herself, “God, what useless tra-”

 

She stopped mid-sentence, straightening and settling her laptop more comfortably down on her lap, opening a new tab.

 

Something sounded so familiar about this headline, Akira’s warm, laughing voice echoing in her head and teasing her that he _met Risette years ago, last time she came to town she was one of those weird disappearances, you should look it up-_

 

She’d forgotten all about that, what with everything that happened the year before, and ‘weird disappearances’ perfectly fit the bill.

 

Futaba grinned to herself, stretching her fingers before she began to type.

 

Research and knowledge were her forte, after all. The more she knew, the more it might help.

 

***

 

Ryuji can’t help but tap his foot, shaking it as they waited for Sojiro to climb back in after getting directions at the single gas station in town.

 

The last week of school had been sheer torture, knowing that Akira was somewhere out there, alone and possibly hurt and-

 

Ryuji’d never been one for anxiety, never one to think up a worst case scenario, but with this, when it came to Akira, his mind stuck on the worst ones.

 

Of his body, lying in a ditch somewhere near or in the Samegawa, of him tied up and bruised and-

 

Haru’s hand fell on his knee, stilling it and his thoughts, and Ryuji looked up with a jolt to realize they were moving again.

 

The car was quiet, had been since Futaba had successfully claimed the front and auxiliary and everyone else’s nervous energy had petered out, but now it seemed they were all pretending like they hadn’t been watching him. Even Sojiro, eyes flicking away from the rearview as he glanced over.

 

“What?” he found himself snapping, grimacing at his own tone. “Sorry, I-”

 

“It’s okay, Ryuji,” Haru told him, smiling in that gentle way she always did. “We’re all on edge. But you don’t want to wear yourself out just yet. We only have a few hours to do an initial look around for Mona-chan and any other clues, after all.”

 

He smiled at her, but it felt more like a grimace with the way his skin was itching, nerves and worry making him feel almost sick, trapped here in this little van-

 

“We’ve got to check in before you kids go running amok,” Sojiro drawled, pulling the car to a stop. “But we are here, so try and contain yourself just a little longer.”

 

Ryuji practically launched himself out of the van as soon as he could get the door open, stumbling and blinking rapidly at the sudden brightness as the sound of a familiar laugh erupted from nearby.

 

“Wow, that certainly was an entrance!” Shiho giggled, brushing off her pants as she stood. Ryuji couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his face at seeing one of his oldest friends once again, or the laughter after Ann shoved him aside to kiss her girlfriend in greeting.

 

“Gross,” Futaba gagged, appearing next to Ryuji. “I don’t know why I expected any different knowing Ann, though.”

 

“Such passion…” Yusuke marveled, framing the couple between his fingers. “Wonderful! I should like to-”

 

“Don’t you _dare_!” Ann shrieked suddenly, pointing at Yusuke and shielding Shiho’s giggling face with her free hand.

 

“But-”

 

“Nope, you lost all drawing rights to my face and my girlfriend’s after-”

 

“Everyone, may I remind you we’re in a _parking lot_ in front of a very well regarded inn?” Makoto interrupted, arms crossed.

 

Futaba snickered as the trio quieted, and Makoto’s face softened. “Suzui-chan, right? It’s very nice to meet you, though I’m sorry it has to be under these circumstances.”

 

Shiho smiled and held out her hand.  “It’s very nice to meet you too, Niijima-senpai. Ann told me how bad you felt about everything last year, and I just wanted to tell you that it wasn’t your fault, and thank you for all you did for her. For everyone, really.”

 

The stunned embarrassment on Makoto’s face as she stuttered out a thank you and that it was nothing was something truly spectacular, and out of the corner of Ryuji’s eye, he saw Futaba take a picture with her phone before Boss spoke up behind them.

 

“Hey, can at least _some_ of you kids come and help me with your bags?”

 

And with that, Ryuji soon found himself holding Ann’s, Futaba’s, and his own bag as he trudged behind the group into the Amagi Inn.

 

It was traditional and rustic in a way that some locations in Tokyo tried to emulate but failed, the atmosphere calm and inviting and open in the way the city could never be. It was obvious that the place was old, but well-taken care of, and Ryuji knew at once why this place was called the ‘pride of Inaba’.

 

There were two others in the lobby besides their giant group, a younger girl with long, brown hair twisted up into a careful braid, sitting with another, gorgeous woman in a kimono.

 

The woman stood as soon as she noticed them, smoothing out her kimono and looking over the group with a careful smile, probably trying to figure how much chaos the mass of teenagers was bringing to the hotel. Her eyes stuck to Ryuji just a bit longer than the others, and he felt his face warm from the attention.

 

“Welcome. You must be Sakura-san and company,” she said with a bow, voice even and soft. “I am Yukiko Amagi, Dojima-san will be delighted to hear you’ve arrived.”

 

“Yeah, sorry it’s a bit later than we were supposed to get here. Drive was longer than I expected,” Boss told her, rubbing the back of his neck. “Your inn here is very lovely, thank you for having us.”

 

Amagi-san smiled, and looked them all over again, before gesturing to her right and saying, “Please, follow me to your rooms.”

 

They were led to two connected rooms, the girls taking one while the guys shared the other, and Amagi-san watched them set down their things, seeming nervous as she rattled off the bath’s hours and hotel amenities, before seeming to come to a decision near the end.

 

“...Um. There is also a local rumor that’s going around that may interest you? It’s quite popular at the local high school, Suzui-chan has probably heard all about it.”

 

To Ryuji, it looked almost like Shiho had been punched, inhaling sharply as Amagi-san continued, seeming to watch all of their reactions carefully.

 

“They’ve been saying that on a rainy night, if you look in a dark TV set at midnight exactly, you’ll see your soulmate. And it is supposed to rain tonight, if you’d like to see for yourself if it works.”

 

“Oooh. Creepy,” Futaba mumbled, and Amagi-san grinned widely before bowing and telling them if they needed her, she’d be at the front, and leaving.

 

“What’s this about rain tonight?” Ryuji asked Shiho. “It’s clear as hell out, no way she’s right.”

Shiho shook her head, still looking troubled. “Amagi-san’s got a knack for that sort of thing.”

 

“Seems like bull to me,” he found himself blurting out, leg starting to jiggle again. “Anyway, let’s go look for Mona. Stupid cat can’t run from all of us.”

 

“Yes, Mona-chan might know something important!” Haru agreed, and Ryuji felt himself breathe a little easier. Finally, some progress.

 

***

 

“Effin’ _bullshit_ ,” Ryuji cursed, pacing across the room. “Asshole cat is _nowhere_ , how’s this possible?”

 

“Language,” Futaba said absently, staring at her laptop intently.

 

“Also hush, it’s quite late.” Makoto sighed wearily. “I didn’t realize how far the inn was from everything else.”

 

“Yes, although the experience of coming so far in the downpour was truly something.” Yusuke hummed. “The weight of our clothing and limbs and hearts, the brisk country air-”

 

“Well, I hated it,” Ann grumbled, mood considerably darker now that she was away from her girlfriend. “Morgana’s going to have some explaining to do when we find him.”

 

“Speaking of the lateness, should we try and see if that rumor Amagi-san mentioned was true?” Haru piped up. “It should be soon, right?”

 

“If two minutes counts as soon,” Futaba said, and then snorted. “If Mona knew, he’d kill us.”

 

“Yeah, well, he ain’t here, is he?” Ryuji grumbled, flopping next to her and looking at her screen. “...Dude, are you frickin’ reading rumor blogs about _Risette_?”

 

“Sh-shut up!” Futaba yelped, punching his arm. “I’m onto something!”

 

“ _Dude_ . Now is _definitely_ not the ti-”

 

“May I remind you that you’re in here because we didn’t want to wake Boss since we got back and had to take baths so late-”

 

The hiss of static interrupted Makoto, and almost instantly, the room went silent.

 

The sound of the old set tuning filled the room, and then it flickered, foggy image solidifying until they could see very clearly what was on it.

 

It was Joker.

 

Ryuji felt himself shoot to his feet unconsciously, studying the image, more awake and strangely calm than he had been since he’d dashed for the lifeboat on Shido’s ship.

 

The Joker on the TV smiled, a dark, wicked thing that sent a spike of fear into Ryuji’s heart, and then spoke.

 

“Hello, ‘ _friends_ ’. Took you long enough to arrive.”

 

“Oh my god-” what sounded like Ann murmured.

 

“I was convinced you wouldn’t, so this is a nice surprise.” TV Joker continued. “But, you might be too late. It’s a cruel, lonely world, you know.”

 

A flash, of someone stumbling and ducking behind cover, something monstrous looming over-

 

But before Ryuji could really tell anything more of what was happening, Joker had returned.

 

“It all depends on you. Can you find hi- _me_ in time? With how long it took us to figure out some of the keywords, and how you don’t have me around to figure everything for you and lead you the right way, I don’t think you will. But…”

 

The TV set filled with static for a small moment, the image of Joker flashing into the fuzzy outline of someone else, someone familiar-

 

But just like the last time, it flashed away before Ryuji could really process what was happening, what he was being shown.

 

“I dare you to prove you can.” Joker’s low, frightening voice said, issued like an order, a challenge, and Ryuji suddenly felt like vomiting as the set turned off again.

 

The room was silent, and Ryuji felt himself shaking, just like he had earlier, needing to get out, to run, to _find Akira-_

 

He barely heard the rest of the Thieves calling after him as he shoved the room’s door open and took off.

 

_***_

 

His dud leg finally gave out on him what felt like a good distance away from the inn, the picturesque countryside seeming endless and empty and frightening in just the bleary light of the few streetlamps.

 

Ryuji slumped down in the grass beside the road, panting heavily and trying to rub the soreness out of his leg, itching to run again.

 

 _Nothing_ made sense, from the fact that this ‘Midnight Channel’ even existed, to the odd, almost menacing way that Akira lookalike acted on it.

 

It was like the way he acted as Joker, but wrong, almost sickeningly so. Ryuji’d been there from the beginning, he prided himself in knowing both his best friend and his alter-ego down to the very core, and whoever that had been on the TV, it wasn’t either of them. Or at least, in a way he’d recognized.

 

Ryuji groaned loudly, rubbing his temples and pushing back some of his hair, everything wet from the rain that was now coming down in a light sprinkle.

 

“You okay?” A voice asked from nearby, and Ryuji started, turning to see a guy around Amagi-san’s age, headphones blaring out some indistinguishable but familiar-seeming tune from where they hung around his neck.

 

“Uh. I dunno?” Ryuji found himself replying.

 

“Yeah, stupid question, I know,” the guy sighed. “I mean, who’d be out here at one in the morning in the rain if they were?”

 

Ryuji shrugged, and the guy snorted. “Yeah. Well, I’m fresh off a closing shift, and I’ve been told I’m not the best listener, but...wanna talk about it? Or, um...can I call someone for you?”

 

Ryuji shrugged, half-wanting the guy to leave him alone.

 

But a minute later, once the guy did start to move, to leave, panic reached up and clenched his heart like a vice and-

 

“My best friend’s gone missing, and someone who looks like him but _wasn’t_ just showed up on the TV and I feel kind of like I’m losing my mind?” he blurted out, and the movement from the other guy completely stopped.

 

Ryuji looked over at him, and the expression on his face was something he’d never seen before.

 

“...Shit,” the guy swore after a long moment, and then he was sitting on the ground next to Ryuji, muttering quietly, music clicking off. “So it is happening again, fucking dammit-”

 

“What’s happening again?”

 

“Ah...well…let’s just say that there was some disappearances a while back, and your buddy is in some real bad danger if he did show up on the Midnight Channel tonight. But he’s still alive right now, I promise,” the guy explained, rubbing his face. “Alright, tell me more. You’re talking about this Kurusu kid, right? What’s he like?”

 

“You know Akir-wait, _danger_? But he’s still-how the hell-“

 

The guy shrugged. “Just trust me about that okay? And small town. I basically manage the local Junes, so I hear it all. Middle-aged housewives _love_ to talk.”

 

“...well, ‘scuse me for not wantin’ to believe some strange dude when he tells me my best effin’ friend’s in danger and then says he’s alive,” Ryuji grumbled. “Would you trust me after hearin’ that?”

 

The guy paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Fair enough. But I promise he’ll be okay, alright? Swear on my life even.”

 

And well. The guy seemed genuine enough, sitting with him at one in the morning in the rain, and Ryuji was _tired_ and wanted answers, so he took a breath.

 

“...Don’t those ladies who tell you gossip hate you for workin’ at Junes in the first place?” Ryuji asked, remembering something Akira had told him, and the stranger snorted, surprised for a second at the change in conversation.

 

“Your buddy told you some of the local gossip, huh?”

 

“Yeah. Said he wasn’t gonna get a job there because people already hate him, he’s not gonna make it worse by working at the place everyone here hates.”

 

The guy laughed. “That’s exactly what he told me when I offered a bit after he came back. Said, ‘Oh, no thanks, Hanamura-san, but I don’t want to get run out of here by an angry mob’.”

 

Ryuji laughed as well, the sentence sounding so much like the real Akira that it made him feel a bit lighter. “Hanamura-san, eh? You don’t seem much older than us.”

 

“Oh, shit, I didn’t introduce myself, did I? Hanamura Yosuke, nice to meetcha…?”

 

“Sakamoto Ryuji.”

 

“Nice. And what are you, second, third year? I’m about five years older, then.”

 

“Third, yeah.”

 

“Huh. Y’know the first time the midnight channel popped up was when I was a second year and last year when you were that age, that Phantom Thief stuff was happening, eh?” Yosuke hummed, and Ryuji felt himself stiffen.

 

“Aha...yeah, that was crazy.”  He laughed uneasily, and out of the corner of his eye he watched Yosuke scrutinize him for a long moment before speaking again.

 

“Anyway, that doesn’t matter now. Tell me about Kurusu-kun. I barely know anything, and I _might_ be able to help out the more I know.”

 

Ryuji didn’t know why, but he felt like he could trust this guy. There was something familiar about him, a sort of bond that he really had only ever felt with the other thieves, something comfortable that made him scratch the back of his neck and laugh a little.

 

“Well, where do I even start?”

 

“Beginning’s always nice.”

 

“Alright, so uh...it was rainin’, and I ran into him on his first day-”

 

***

 

It was quiet for a long moment after Ryuji was done telling Yosuke his metaverse-redacted story of the past year, and Ryuji looked over to see him staring at his hands, which were fiddling with the handle of his umbrella, as if he was lost in thought.

 

“...You love Akira, don’t you?” Yosuke asked, quiet. “I...uh...I’m not judging, I have a boyfriend, I just…the way you talk about him...”

 

“...Yeah,” Ryuji breathed, looking back up at the sky. “I think I do.”

 

“Well, shit,” Yosuke said, shooting up and brushing his pant legs uselessly, “Guess I wasn’t expecting any action this summer anyway.”

 

“What?” Ryuji asked, confused.

 

“Nothing. Here, lemme help you up. I’ve got something to show you,” Yosuke sighed, holding out his hand.

 

Ryuji looked at it, and then back up to Yosuke. “What?”

“It’s easier to show than tell. But, I promise it’ll be alright. Might answer some of your questions,” Yusuke promised.

 

And well. Ryuji can’t say no to that, allowing the other boy to help him up and lead him back down into the barely-lit town.

 

***

 

Ryuji almost turned back several times during the walk through the dark, frighteningly empty town (he’d never been this alone in Tokyo, there was always _someone_ around) but his need for some answers, _something_ to assure him that the guy he was in love with was okay, somewhere where he could get to him, kept him on Yosuke’s trail up into and through the darkened Junes until they got to the electronics department.

 

“What the hell’re we doin’ here?” Ryuji asked, shifting his weight off his bad leg as Yosuke dropped his bag and reached behind the largest TV in the room.

 

“Well....like I said, it’s hard to explain. Here,” Yosuke said, handing him a slightly dented golf club. “You shouldn’t, we’re just going in and out, but you might need this.”

 

“Wha-” Ryuji started, stopping when he sees the glint of what looked like very sharp kunai in Yosuke’s other hand.

 

“Trust me,” Yosuke sighed, then shoved Ryuji forward, making him stumble a bit, falling forward a little bit, and fear coursed through him because what the hell did he think he was doing, he was going to fall into the TV-

 

And he did, but the thing was-

 

The screen offered no resistance as his arm went out to catch himself, and he would have hit his head on the massive screen if it hadn’t practically absorbed him, the solid feeling of the screen something smooth such as water-

 

“What the _fuck_ -” Ryuji almost shouted, jerking back and losing his balance even more, and suddenly he was falling, falling further down than the floor of Junes had been-

 

He landed hard on something solid, dizziness overcoming him for a long moment before he could shove himself up, looking around to see faint fog and what looks like a tv set-

 

There was also a familiar weight on his face, solid and reassuring, and when Ryuji raised his hands he saw an achingly familiar bright yellow and Seiten Taisei a welcoming presence in his heart, and he almost _cried_ in relief at it all.

 

He’d missed the Metaverse, more than he’d realized, missed the power and ability to actually do something, _change_ something-

 

Yosuke suddenly appeared beside him, groaning in pain and rolling over, scrambling to push himself upright and looking around, freezing at the sight of Ryuji.

 

“What the _fuck_.”

 

“Uh-”

 

“Why do you get a cool outfit?! I’ve been here off and on for _years_ and I _always look the same-_ ”

 

“Well-”

 

“Wait a _fucking second_ I recognize that look! You’re one of those Phantom Thieves from last year, aren’t you?!”

 

“Uh, yea-”

 

“If you changed when you came in here, does that mean that you guys used the TV world to steal hearts? How’d you fight the Shadows, do you guys have Personas too? Aw, man, Naoto’s gonna _freak_ when she finds out. How did you get here from Tokyo, we’ve only been able to get here in Inaba? Also, this place was a nice field last winter, what happened to turn it back?”

 

Ryuji couldn’t help but laugh, thrilled because _this_ was something he could handle. If Akira was here somewhere, it’d be a _breeze_.

 

“...What’s so funny?” Yosuke asked, and Ryuji grinned.

 

“Listen, I dunno about most of the stuff you were askin’ about but, Personas? You think the outfit’s cool, check this shit out.”

 

It didn’t hurt anymore when he pulled the mask off, just filled him with a warmth and energy he hadn’t felt in forever, electricity crackling through him, sparking off just a little as he called Seiten Taisei, the Persona bowing at him, just as thrilled as him at their reunion, and Ryuji laughed again when he caught the _look_ on Yosuke’s face.

 

“...that’s just not _fair_ ,” he muttered, pulling himself up. “Like, astronomically unfair. A cool outfit and a sick summoning? All I get is a card to destroy and Susano-o appears.”

 

“A...card?” Ryuji asked, and Yosuke nodded, closing his eyes, and a blue card appeared, floating downwards and spinning. Yosuke took one of the kunai in his spare hand, slicing it upwards through the card and with a noise oddly like glass shattering, a figure appeared, large and flame-red, razor-sharp discs surrounding it, and a burst of wind almost knocked Ryuji off his feet.

 

“Susano-o,” Yosuke repeated, smiling.

 

“Nice,” Ryuji said, nodding and stretching out his arm. “So, where’s Akira? Let’s grab him and get back!”

 

Yosuke blinked at him. “Uh. What?”

 

“He’s here, right? You can tell me the specifics of what this place is on the way, c’mon!”

 

“What, no, we’re not-” Yosuke started, shaking his head.

 

“Why not? We’ve got Personas, we’ve both done this before,” Ryuji interrupted, frowning. “He’s been here for almost two weeks!”

 

“But we don’t have-”

 

“What? Meds? Backup? Neither does he! Plus, the others’ll be here as soon as they realize we’re missing, and if we come up against something that’s too powerful, we can get right on out. It’ll be recon at _worst_ , and at best we’d get Akira outta this place! If you didn’t want to at least check it out, why’d you even bring me here?”

 

Yosuke glanced towards the haphazard stack of televisions nearby, and frowned again, thinking, and Ryuji tapped his foot, frustrated.

 

“Look, I’ve taken out a god and saved the world this year, and Akira’s done way more shit and is _still_ suffering. I’m goin’ after him, with or without you, and I’m not leaving without him.”

 

Something in Yosuke’s expression changed at the comment, hardened and then softened, and he nodded, giving him what looked like an easy smile.

 

“Alrighty, then. Lead the way, I’m no navigator and it’s probably waaaaaay different than when I was last here,” he told Ryuji, who grinned, looking around again and pointing off into the distance, where he saw an oddly familiar blue light through the fog.

 

“That way?”

 

“Sounds good to me.” Yosuke nodded, clicking back on his music as they set off, Ryuji moving quickly, excitement and hope propelling him onwards despite his earlier exhaustion.

 

***

 

The further the pair moved through the fog, the more an odd feeling of something being _wrong_ filled Ryuji.

 

Shadows appeared often on the long, wide-open pathway they followed, but they were all weak and were taken out in just a couple _Ziodyne_ s and _Garudyne_ s, providing pretty much no challenge for him and Yosuke, and the fog surrounding them blocked out anything too far ahead or behind.

 

Occasionally, there would be a familiar clattering, like a subway on the tracks, or even a whisper or a mechanical dinging, but the sound would be gone just as soon as it had appeared.

 

But, despite the odd feeling that only got worse the more they dispatched the weaklings and moved onwards, Ryuji kept going, propelled by the gut feeling that he was so _close_ , Akira was in danger and he was _almost there_ -

 

“I hope there’s not too many more of these guys,” Yosuke sighed, another shadow vanishing in a gust of wind. “I mean, I dunno about you, but I’m starting to run out of energy, y’know?”

 

“Yeah,” Ryuji groaned, rubbing at the inside of his right knee a bit. “But we’re close, we’ve gotta be.”

 

“...It does feel like it, yeah.”

 

Ryuji smiled at the confirmation, hefting the pipe he’d taken to replace the rather useless golf club from the backlot they’d come from. “You good to keep goin?”

 

“Yeah, just...give me a breath. You okay?”

 

“Think so. Few scrapes and bruises, the usual shadow-fighting stuff.”

 

“Need a heal?” Yosuke asked, eyeing him critically. “I think I’ve still got enough in me for one or two of them.”

 

“I’m good, thanks.” Ryuji nodded, “Akira’s probably gonna need it more.”

 

Yosuke’s smile was wry, tired but teasing, and Ryuji laughed. “Shut up.”

 

“I didn’t say anything!”

 

“You were _gonna_.”

 

“You can’t prove _anything_ , kid.” Yosuke snickered, straightening. “Alright, I’m good to keep going.”

 

Ryuji nodded, turning around to set off and blinking in surprise to find their surroundings had changed, crumbling concrete covered in blue spray painted graffiti, a deeper blue light coming from deeper within, illuminating everything.

 

It all was so _familiar_ in a way, but wrong as well, the feeling of dread in Ryuji’s gut getting heavier.

 

“What the _fuck?_ ” Yosuke asked, looking around, mouth agape. “It didn’t look like this a second ago, right?”

 

“I don’t...think so?”

 

“What the _fuck_ ,” he repeated, as if for emphasis.

 

Ryuji moved over to one of the walls, running his gloved finger over the words, reminded of Sae’s palace.

 

But this was different, the jagged stylized words reading, “ _Joker?_ ” “ _savior?”_ all questions, all words they’d used to describe Akira, names they’d called him, each sharp and cruel-looking, paint dripping, the question marks giving an air of sarcasm that put Ryuji on edge.

 

Ryuji swallowed, looked away from the graffiti and further down the hall. “We need to keep going.”

 

“...yeah. I don’t think we’ll be able to get out even if we wanted to.” Yosuke sighed, and his footsteps echoed as he walked over to where Ryuji stood. “Ready?”

 

Ryuji nodded, and they continued on through those strange hallways, Ryuji both on alert for shadows and racking his brain for when he’d last been somewhere like this, somewhere where the deep blue was both relaxing and unsettling, where what look eerily like cells dotted the wall every once in a while-

 

“Is this...is this a jail? Dude, I’d heard he’d gone to prison, but I didn’t think it was _true_ , not after I met him-”

 

“Yeah, well, sometimes life _fucking sucks_ ,” Ryuji snapped.

 

“...Sorry.”

 

“...No, don’t be-” Ryuji started, but was interrupted by a scream.

One that was bloodcurdling, wordless, pained, and before he even realized what he was doing, Ryuji was _running_ , sprinting towards the yell as fast as his legs could carry him, soreness and exhaustion be _damned_ because he just _knew_ -

 

He turned a corner and found himself in a wide-open space, the room circular and lined with cells, a pair of guillotines standing guard at the end of the room. It hit him that this must be the Velvet Room just as there was an awful roaring and another scream, and Ryuji turned his head just in time to see Akira himself go flying through the air, slamming into a wall on the far side of the room. Ryuji made a pained, sympathetic noise before he was running again, running to him-

 

The giant, clawed hand that appeared out of nowhere, swiping at him, caught Ryuji off guard enough for it to connect, sending him crashing into the wall as well.  His head slammed hard enough on the cement that Ryuji wanted to vomit.

 

What had gotten him?  The fear twisting in his gut started to feel like a cement block as he looked up, and up, and up, something looking like a awful mix of a bat out of hell and a demon towering over the room.

 

The creature paid him no mind, reaching down to grab at Akira again, and Ryuji couldn’t help the yell that came out of him,as he struggled up again, preparing to run over.

 

A burst of wind beat him to the punch, flinging away the hand, and Ryuji looked over to see Yosuke, panting, a grim look of determination on his face as Susano-o hovered above him, and Ryuji was grateful for the time that Garudyne gave him as he sprinted over, ducking and rolling Akira out of the way, taking a claw to the back that he could barely feel in his relief at having Akira somewhat safe in his arms-

 

But the relief vanished as soon as it came when he noticed how badly Akira was bleeding, how badly he was hurt, how he was not even in his thief clothes, just a sleep shirt and pants, and Ryuji was too distracted to notice the hand swiping at them again.

 

The impact hurt more than the first, had him gasping out a breath as the claws raked through the leather back of his shirt and Akira making an awful, pained noise as they flew back again, and that noise had Ryuji standing again, turning to face the demon unsteadily.

 

“WHAT THE HELL D’YA WANT WITH HIM?!” he shouted up at it, brandishing his weapon like it was more than just a pipe as he advanced, trying to keep himself upright through the dizziness, motivated purely by the need to protect. “CAN’T YOU SEE YOU’VE DONE ENOUGH?”

 

The thing seemed to consider Ryuji for a long moment, the boy advancing all the while, and then Ryuji blinked and the demon was replaced by someone that looked so much like Akira that Ryuji looked behind him to make sure he was still there, hurt and bleeding, before he could look back and be sure it wasn’t him.

 

“Have I?” the duplicate asked, tilting his head like a puppy, still staring at Ryuji as if studying him, the way he spoke a little odd, as if trying to pretend to be someone else. “Or has he not done enough to make me _stop_?”

 

“Quit the fuckin’ riddles,” Ryuji snapped. “Akira hasn’t done _anything_ to deserve being beaten near half to death by whoever the fuck you think you are.”

 

Not-Akira paused for a second, and when he spoke again, it was quiet, almost ashamed. “What if he thinks he did?”

 

“...What?”

 

The thing shook its head, meeting Ryuji’s eyes with what looked like a cold resolve, the terribly familiar click of a gun sounding as it raised one to Ryuji. “It is my duty to placate him and take him to my client. And seeing as he is finally stilled and we have been interrupted by you _pests_ , it is time we left. Now, if you will-”

 

“Like _hell_ ,” Ryuji hissed, stepping closer, ignoring Yosuke’s worried shout behind him. “You’re not taking him _anywhere_.”

 

“I must,” the creature insisted, also stepping closer. “My client demands it.”

 

“Then take me instead!” Ryuji bit back, not thinking of the consequences.

 

Yosuke shouted again, but Ryuji still wasn’t paying attention, too focused on keeping Akira safe, on the way the fake considered, tilting its head.

 

“My client requested the ‘hero’,” it mused, pressing one of its long, clawed fingers to his lips, considering Ryuji with its golden eyes.

 

“Yeah, well fuckin’ tough.” Ryuji snarled, “It’s either me, or your ‘client’ ain’t getting shit. Plus, I’d personally like to beat his head in.”

 

The duplicates’ eyes softened before it grinned at him sharply.

 

“I think that can be arranged,” it hummed, grabbing for him.

 

Ryuji found himself bound, an unintentional Zio crackling around him, facing Yosuke, who was watching the scene play out with Akira listing on his shoulder, both looking horrified.

 

“KEEP HIM SAFE!” Ryuji yelled, and he had enough time to see Yosuke’s eyes go wide before darkness consumed him along with a sharp pain to the back of his neck.

 

***

 

As soon as Ryuji vanished along with the golden-eyed shadow of his best friend, the kid himself in Yosuke’s arms seemed to come _alive_ , lurching forwards as if to grab for them but not getting very far with his injuries.  He shrieked almost inhumanly, pain and sorrow and terror in the ear-splitting sound, and even worse sounds came out of the boy when the prison began to dissolve around them, crumbling until they’re in that foggy hallway from before.

 

Yosuke had to hold him down then, make him stop moving before he makes something even _worse_ , bringing Kurusu to a point he can’t bring him back from, not by himself (hell, he barely has enough to heal over the wounds as it is, magic exhausted from the slog of shadows to even get there).

 

He found himself babbling, telling the boy that he can’t help Ryuji like this, can’t do anything this badly hurt and alone, that they needed to wait for backup, everyone would be there soon-

 

Kurusu still struggled against his hold, whimpering and crying, not seeming to hear Yosuke until he gasped, a pained, terrible sound, and stilled before screaming again.

 

It’s the worst sound Yosuke’s ever heard, and is still ringing in his ears as Kurusu collapsed, finally still again.

 

***

 

Futaba gritted her teeth, pulled her eyes away from her laptop screen and took another sip of the ( _vastly_ subpar) coffee from the inn’s lobby, making a face as she set it down.

 

She was so _close_ to something, close to figuring out why exactly they’d all seen Joker on TV, taunting them, what it had to do with this _town_ and the incidents of six years before, who she could talk to for _answers_ -

 

Futaba groaned and rubbed at her eyes, and was startled a moment later by the sound of glassware clinking nearby.

 

The woman from earlier was standing next to her, looking a bit sheepish and holding her now empty mug, a steaming full one next to Futaba’s elbow.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” she sighed, cheeks pink. “You looked absorbed in your work, and I saw your mug was empty, and a friend of mine gets the same way….”

 

Futaba blinked, looking from the woman and the mug, unsure of how to proceed.

 

She still wasn’t that great with people, nerves often getting the best of her until someone more familiar could cut in or she could escape, but there was something calming about the innkeeper, something Futaba had really only felt around three people before.

 

She bit her lip, nodding at the woman. “Th-thank you. Ah-I-I forgot your name?”

 

“Oh! A-amagi Yukiko.” the woman said, bowing, a little flustered. “I might have forgot to say when you checked in, I’m so sorry.”

 

“I-it’s fine.”

 

Amagi-san smiled at her, and then paused, a flash of that same nervousness that she’d shown the night before appearing on her face.

 

“Ah...did you happen to catch the Midnight Channel last night?”

 

Futaba inhaled sharply, suddenly more awake than she had been since the Midnight Channel had started and Ryuji had run off.

 

She’d almost forgotten that the inn manager had suggested it to them in the first place in the chaos of everything that had happened, in her near desperate search for clues in the many hours since, and now…

 

Now she almost wanted to cry. The answers were right under her nose the entire time.

 

Amagi-san’s face had twisted into one of sympathy and understanding, and she settled down gracefully on the floor next to Futaba, “I take it you saw someone you knew?”

 

“Ah...m-my brother.” Futaba told her, watching the way the woman cringed a little. “H-he disappeared, recently. W-we came here to find him.”

 

“Yes, I....I heard. From Dojima-san. When he requested I set aside some rooms for you.”

 

Something was odd in the way Amagi-san spoke, as if she was trying to be careful to not reveal something she shouldn’t, and Futaba was ready to blame the exhaustion she’d been feeling for days on the next thing she said.

 

“You know where he is, don’t you?”

 

Amagi-san’s eyes grew wide, and before she could say something else, Futaba pressed on.

 

“‘Cause-cause see, I’ve been _looking_ , and not to toot my own horn, but i’m pretty good at this kind of stuff, and there’s _nothing_ ! And I _know_ him, he wouldn’t just vanish like that, and this Midnight Channel stuff was happening during the murders six years ago, and-and I. He...he needs help, I _know_ it.”

 

Amagi-san’s face had taken on that sympathetic expression again, and she looked like she was thinking about something.

 

“You’ll think I’m crazy.” she finally sighed.

 

Futaba snorted. “Try me.”

 

Amagi-san looked at her again, this time curiously, but was interrupted by a gentle, electronic song coming from nearby.

 

From beneath one of the folds in her kimono, she pulled out a _seriously_ old phone, flipping it open and answering with a, “Yes?”

 

The voice on the other end was loud, excited, but not enough for Futaba to hear, and Amagi-san’s face twisted into something terrified and worried before she said, “Alright. What does-.....Is he su-......Alright. I’ll see if I can find someone to take over the desk.”

 

She hung up and stared at her old, old phone before looking away from it and back at Futaba, something fiery in her formerly timid expression that reminded her of Haru.

 

“Well, that changes things. I’m going to set aside a room for us all to talk, would you mind grabbing your friends?”

 

***

 

Yu paced in front of the Junes Department Store, chewing his fingernail as he waited for the opening manager to arrive to unlock the doors.

 

Not only was there a kid who’d been in the TV world for a little under two weeks already, but Yosuke was missing, Teddie informing him once Yu had arrived to see his boyfriend at the Hanamura’s that he hadn’t come home the night before from his shift.

 

Not only that, but it had been the first night that the Midnight Channel had actually confirmed that the boy (Kurusu-kun, his uncle had supplied the night before at Yu’s careful questioning) was in the TV world, had sent a spike of fear and anxiety into Yu’s gut.

 

Yosuke _wouldn’t_ have gone into the TV world alone, he’d _promised_ Yu so long ago, when this whole crazy mess had first started, and Yosuke _never_ broke promises-

 

But he’d also heard that someone had seen a blonde boy with him the night before, and after a call to Kanji to confirm it hadn’t been him, he hadn’t dyed his hair back, that he’d told him that there had been a blonde boy among the Kurusu-kun’s friends that had arrived the day before.

 

“Kinda reminded me of me. But brighter. Looked like an athlete?” Kanji had offered, and Yu had thanked him before heading straight to Junes.

 

Yosuke wouldn’t be so stupid as to bring an unknowing teenager into the TV world without backup, would he?

 

Yu groaned and grabbed for his phone again, unlocking it and going to dial Yosuke’s number when he noticed a new addition to his home screen.

 

Yu wasn’t one to have much on his phone (in fact, he would have just stuck to his old, simple flip phone had he not lost his in a tragic bike accident visiting his boyfriend), so the new, bright yellow square on his phone was startling to say the least.

 

In it, an eye with a star in its pupil stared back at him, stylized and unblinking.

 

“Where’d this app come from?” he muttered to himself, thumb hovering over it to delete it.

 

“An app?” a mysterious, high-pitched boy’s voice asked from somewhere nearby, almost scaring him into dropping the device entirely.

 

“Who’s there?” Yu asked, looking around and seeing nobody.

 

There was a rustling in the bushes nearby, and the voice spoke again. “He can’t hear me, can he?”

 

“I can. Please come out?” Yu called again, still looking for a person.

 

A black cat with white patches came out of the bushes and hopped up onto the bench, and Yu blinked. It couldn’t be-

 

“You can hear me?!” the cat asked, and if Yu hadn't seen his mouth move, or if he hadn’t have met Teddie, he would have thought he was crazy.

 

“Y...yes?”

 

The cat’s blue eyes got wider, and Yu could swear that it was smiling.

 

“Perfect.”

 

“What?”

 

“Let’s just say, I’ve been looking for a new...apprentice, yeah. I almost thought I’d have to slip on the train back to Tokyo to find someone who could hear me.”

 

“An apprentice? For what?”

 

“Never mind that for now. It’ll come up soon if this app you mentioned is related to the Metaverse.”

 

“...the what now?”

 

“I said it’d come up soon! It’s easier to see than explain. Now, let me see this app.” The cat huffed, leaping gracefully off the bench and up to Yu’s shoulder, settling rather carefully so he was balanced against his bag.

 

Dutifully, Yu opened up his phone again to show the cat, who made a noise that sounded like a cross between a purr and a hum.

 

“Yeah, that’s the Nav alright. But why does it look-oh, never mind. Open it, will you?”

 

Hesitantly, Yu tapped on the strange icon, the yellow eye taking up most of the screen before a map showed up.

 

At first glance, it appeared to be a map of Inaba, but the longer Yu looked, the more odd discrepancies he noticed.

 

A small, stylized television set sat in front of two yellow arrows that he assumed were himself and the cat (and wasn’t that interesting in itself) instead of the solid square that was the hulking square mass of Junes, with pathways sprawling out in several directions from it.

 

The layout was distantly familiar in a way, something about it nagging at a distant part in his head.

 

“...this is different.” The cat remarked from its spot on his shoulder.

 

Before Yu could ask, two red dots appeared, moving slowly towards the TV set, one pulsing slowly, a couple of black dots following at a much quicker pace.

 

He looked up, but there was still nobody but himself and the cat on the road, and the oddity of the situation made Yu worry more than he already was.

 

The red dots passed through where Yu and the cat were standing, and Yu was suddenly hit with a flash of emotions that weren’t his, pain and fear and worry and despair filling him for the briefest of seconds when the red and yellow collided on the screen, and the cat shivered on Yu’s shoulder as if it had felt the same.

 

Yu tapped on the dots, wondering if more information about what had just happened would appear, but was instead greeted with a popup with a very simple message:

 

**_BEGIN NAVIGATION?_ **

 

“ _Yes_ ,” the cat hummed, and Yu nodded and hit the okay button.

 

“ _Beginning MetaChannel tuning….”_

 

Instantly, he was overcome with a wave of dizziness and nausea, a familiar sensation that had been accompanied with the heaviness of falling before, but was absent now.

 

The small weight of the cat on his shoulder grew for a moment before vanishing, and Yu heard a very familiar yelp behind him that was quickly drowned out by the awful groaning that came with the Shadows.

 

He quickly searched through his mind, finding the familiar warmth of energy as he summoned the card, crushing it in his hand as he called forth Izanagi-No-Okami.

 

“ _Mercurius!_ ” the cat shouted out from somewhere nearby, and Yu opened his eyes to watch as waves of wind and lightning obliterated the Shadows in front of him.

 

“Nice! You’re not so-” the cat started.

 

“ _Partner?!_ ”

 

And oh, Yu would know _that_ voice anywhere, and he turned quickly around, inhaling sharply when he saw Yosuke for the first time in weeks.

 

There was blood streaked on his shirt and jeans, little cuts scattered about on his face as he panted, looking utterly exhausted as he supported the weight of another boy with curly dark hair, looking much, much worse off, blood spattering his sleep clothes and hair, wounds seen through the holes in his clothes looking pinkened and just healed, and Yu knew who this boy was almost instantly, his photo having been prominently featured in the rather thick file Dojima had left on the table.

 

Kurusu Akira, missing since July 8th.

 

“ _Joker_!?” the cat yelped from beside Yu, and something that looked like a cat version of Teddie raced to Kurusu-kun’s side, a black mask on its face and a cartoonishly large sword strapped to its hip.

 

“What the-” Yosuke started, cut off by the creature.

 

“I’ll explain, set him down so I can _heal him properly_ , oh my god, Joker…”

 

Yosuke did as it asked, leaning down to set the unconscious boy on the yellow swirled floor of the backlot, and Yu rushed forward to fill the empty space at Yosuke’s side kneeling down next to him and pulling a persona with healing capabilities to the front of his mind.

 

“You _idiot_ , what were you _doing_ , what were you _thinking_ -” Yu started muttering, looking his boyfriend over and running his hands up and down his sides, over his cheeks-

 

“I’m okay, I’m fine, I promise this blood isn’t mine-”

 

“You _promised_ not to go alone, you _promised me_ -”

 

“I wasn’t alone, I had-”

 

“ _Ryuji!_ ” Kurusu shouted suddenly, interrupting the couple, and Yu turned to see him sitting up, a look of pain twisting his young, pretty features, gasping for air as he looked around frantically.

 

“Hey, hey, let me finish-”

 

“ _No,_ we need to- Mona, he’s got him, he’s in danger-”

 

“Skull’s fine, he’s tough, _no don’t get up_ -”

 

Kurusu made an awful pained noise, gasping as he curled up into a crouch, wobbling dangerously, and Mona yowled angrily, pushing him back down.

 

“Don’t you make me cast _Dormina_ on you-”

 

“He came for me and he’s gone Mona I need-”

 

“You need to let me-”

 

“ _No,_ I-”

 

There was a flash of blue flames, a thin figure, and Kurusu-kun slumped over, limp and immobile, Mona letting out a grumble and a little ‘oof!’ as it maneuvered him back against the backlot’s framework.

 

Another flash of blue flames appeared, and Mona turned to Yu and Yosuke. “Do you need healing?”

 

“What the hell are you?” Yosuke blurted, and Yu couldn’t help but snort. Blunt as ever, even when possibly injured. “You have a Persona too? Are you some kind of...cat-Teddie? Anoth-”

 

“I’m _not_ a cat!!!” it hissed hackles raised, looking so much like the creatures it claimed not to be. “I’m _Morgana_ , not some kind of- _Teddie_ ? What even is a _Teddie_?!”

 

“How’m I supposed to know what you are? You look like a cat, you’re certainly _acting_ like one-”

 

“Hmmph! See if I heal you now!”

 

“I don’t need it!”

 

“Yosuke.” Yu interrupted the argument, making his tone calm and commanding, the question asked through expression alone when Yosuke pursed his lips and then shook his head.

 

“I really don’t. It’s the kid’s blood, not mine.”

 

“You swear?”

 

“I swear, partner. I wouldn’t lie to you,” Yosuke assured, smiling softly at Yu, who tried his best to stay angry through his relief at the news.

 

“Then why the _hell_ did you bring an _unarmed teenager_ -”

 

“I didn’t bring Kurusu in here-”

 

“The other one! The one he was yelling about, Ryu or something like that-”

 

“He reminded me of _us_ , dammit!” Yosuke interrupted, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “A-and he wasn’t unarmed, he had a _really good_ Persona with Zio skills, and he was going to go with or without me-”

 

“Sounds like Skull, alright.” Morgana (Mona? Yu would have to ask when they’d figured this whole mess out) scoffed, arms crossed.

 

“Skull?” Yu asked, just as Yosuke said, “Who’s Skull?”

 

Morgana groaned and put a paw to his forehead. “Ryuji. He forgot about code names _already_?”

 

“Code names?” Yu asked, intrigued, reminded of the Shadow Ops and those kids from the year before, darkened faces using terms like ‘leader’-

 

“You don’t...well, makes sense actually.” Morgana hummed. “Where are we, really? Feels like the Metaverse, and I’ve changed form so it is connected somehow.”

 

“What’s the Metaverse?” Yosuke asked, cocking his head.

 

Morgana frowned, just as he had earlier, and looked over at Kurusu-kun before sighing. “Well, I guess we have time now. And you have Personae, so this should be easier. Um...how familiar are you with the Phantom Thieves of Tokyo?”

 

***

 

Shiho arrived at the Amagi Inn as soon as the first bus from downtown would allow, surprised for once to see Amagi-san herself wasn’t at the desk.

 

“Oh, Suzui-chan!” the woman covering smiled, gesturing her over.

 

Shiho swallowed down her annoyance, her first instinct to tell her that she didn’t have the _time_ , something _weird_ was going on, and did as she was asked, putting on a smile.

 

“Yes, ma’am?”

 

“That sweet blonde friend of yours told me that if you stopped by to send you to the conference room down the hall, first door on the left. Amagi-san’s friends have been pouring all day to meet everyone, this friend of yours do something else again?” she asked.

 

The brief joy at finding out Ann had left her a message on where to meet was immediately quashed by the anger Shiho felt whenever Akira was blamed for something.

 

_Tell her, girl. Speak your mind, don’t let this happen again!_

 

“Ah!” Shiho gasped, the voice making her feel a little off-kilter like it had always done, like back when-

 

“Hm?” the woman asked, and Shiho straightened, waving her off.

 

“I’m fine, I should-I should go,” she mumbled, setting off down the hall and to the conference room, moving quickly now that _she’d_ reappeared-

 

There was a familiar, loud voice on the other side of the door when she reached it, and Shiho stopped short, listening.

 

“And that’s how I became Teddie~!”

 

A silence, and then, “He _means_ , that’s our story and explanation on what’s going on here with your friend. Normally, we wouldn’t tell anyone else but-”

 

“Senpai was kinda insistent, since he’s been in there a long time, plus….”

 

“Something’s _wrong_ in there. Something real bad. I had to leave home and come here again.”

 

“Don’t worry, though, we’ve done this _loads_ before, Himiko and I are practically _pros_ at finding people. And then we can fix up Teddie’s home back to its beautiful self again!!”

 

That voice was even more familiar than the others, and Shiho felt her eyes widen when she realized who it belonged to.

 

She’d heard rumors that Risette had grown up here, but to hear her actually here, and talking about such strange things with Satonaka-san and Tatsumi-san-

 

“Ah. Sorry, may I?” someone asked from behind Shiho, making her jump and turn to see a rather small, finely dressed person studying her.

 

“I-oh, sorry, I was just about to-” Shiho stuttered, and the mysterious person only smiled, looking back down at the phone in their hand.

 

“It’s quite alright. Let us head in?”

 

“S-sure,” Shiho said, sliding open the door and stepping aside for the other person to enter first.

 

The newcomer looked up from their phone after crossing the threshold of the room, and around the room, studying each of the teenagers with a critical eye before turning back to Shiho and gesturing her to come inside and shut the door before turning back to the room, nodding at the five adults in the room (Satonaka-san, Amagi-san, Tatsumi-san, Risette, and a unknown blonde boy) before saying, voice careful and even, "You're all the Phantom Thieves, aren't you?"

 

Shiho gasped, looking over at Ann to find her girlfriend wide-eyed and looking a little panicked before a nervous sort of laughter that Shiho knew all too well as the one she used when she was trying to act casual after lying.

 

“What? Noooo, no way, us? Pfft-”

 

“Ann…” Makoto sighed, shaking her head slightly before looking up at the newcomer with a shrewd look. “Of course the original detective prince would have us all figured out.”

 

“Ah…” the detective stammered, face growing a little red. “S-so you know who I am.”

 

“‘Course they do.” Tatsumi-san snorted, standing and adjusting his glasses before going to hug the shorter person. “You’re the great Shirogane Naoto.”

 

“You’re incorrigible,” Shirogane-san mumbled into his shirt, face going pinker.

 

“Ya know I don’t know what your big, fancy words mean.” Tatsumi-san laughed.

 

“Naotoooooooo, are they really?!” Risette interrupted, launching herself onto the detective and looking over at the teenagers. “How’d you know?!”

 

“The features and body types shown in their video last December, coupled with-”

 

“Oh! I know! Because they smell like the TV world, right?” the blonde boy asked, smiling confidently and seeming to sparkle a little.

 

Satonaka-san frowned at him. “Teddie, you didn’t think to mention this before?”

 

Teddie seemed to wilt under the cop’s look. “I thought you all knew and that’s why we were telling everyone?”

 

“And how would we know that? You remember that we can’t smell as well as you.” Tatsumi-san groaned.

 

Shirogane-san looked interested though, and looked as if she was about to start questioning the boy when Futaba let out a wordless shriek, standing up with her phone in her hand, laptop forgotten on the table.

 

“I-it’s back! But it’s different? Oh this is _weird_ but-”

 

“What’s back?” Makoto asked, standing and looking over the smaller girl’s shoulder. “Oh!”

 

“What? What’s-Oh!” Ann asked, also standing.

 

“The Nav!” Haru said.

 

“It’s different though, see?” Futaba muttered, tapping a few things. “It’s never looked like this, and-ooh, what’s that over there-”

 

“What? What are they talking about?” Satonaka-san demanded.

 

“...Would you happen to be talking about the app that somehow appeared on my phone this morning?” Shirogane-san asked, worming out from Tatsumi-san and Risette to hold up her phone, showing a yellow icon of a stylized eye, a star making up the pupil.

 

“Yes!” Futaba yelped, grabbing for the other device. “Wow, you said you had Personas, but this really proves it! Huh, I thought it vanished after-”

 

Futaba’s mutterings grew quieter as she continued, tapping and scrolling on both phones as she looked, and Shiho took that as her cue to speak up.

 

“Um. May I ask what you’re all talking about?”

 

Everyone turned to look at her, varying levels of shock and interest and confusion on their faces, like they had forgotten she was there.

 

_Do not let them push you aside or forget you any more!_

 

“Oh,” Shiho muttered, another spike of pain hitting her as the voice spoke again.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Ann asked, moving close and pulling her in and kissing her forehead. “Sorry, it’s...I know, I should’ve told you-”

 

“Aha!” Futaba exclaimed, grin growing a little maniac as she raised one of the two phones up in the air. “So if I do _this_ -”

 

“ _Beginning MetaChannel tuning…”_ a pleasant, robotic voice said, and the world warped around them.

 

Shiho felt an intense bit of dizziness, the solid presence of her girlfriend beside her the only thing keeping her upright as everything rippled and changed around them.

 

Chatter burst out among them, but all Shiho focused on was Ann’s voice, murmuring reassurances, her arms steady and solid around her, the bright red of her skintight outfit-

 

Shiho jerked back, staring incredulously at Ann, who had somehow changed and was now dressed in a bright red jumpsuit, zippers adorning the fabric and framing her body, a matching red cat-like mask now on her face and pink gloves on her hands.

 

And looking around, Shiho saw that the rest of her friends had similarly transformed, each outfit themed differently, the adults surrounding them chattering and seeming just as confused as she was.

 

“What…”

 

“Oh, god, this is-okay, a _long_ story-” Ann started, mouth twisted in a grimace. “We, uh....wow, I’m not really sure how to explain it? Uh...”

 

“Futaba-chan, are you getting the same readings I am?” Risette’s voice suddenly interrupted, quieting everyone else with the panic in her loud voice. Looking over, Shiho saw a tall, silvery woman-like figure with a satellite for a face standing behind her, a visor-like device held in its hands and over Risette’s eyes.

 

“Um, oh! That makes it easier!” Ann stammered. “That’s a Persona, it uhhh...what did Morgana call it? A manifestation of your inner self?”

 

“O...okay.” Shiho murmured, something familiar about the statement as she watched the two other girls.

 

“Yeah. Skull’s far off to the west, and we have Mona, Joker, and two unknowns closer and to the east.” Futaba rattled off, holographic screens surrounding her. “The two unknowns seem friendly-”

 

“Oh! So those two are your friends! Those other two are Senpai and Yosuke!” Risette chirped.

 

“O-oh! S-so Aki- _Joker_ and Mona are okay?”

 

“With those two? Yeah! What about this Skull you’re talking about?”

 

“...He should be fine on his own. Joker’s been in here since he disappeared, right? We need to get to him and the others ASAP.”

 

“Mkay! Want me to help guide everyone with Kanzeon or-”

 

“I-I think I have this. But if you could keep an eye out on Skull? Like I said, he can take care of himself, but-“

 

“But if he’s by himself here, it could be bad, right? Don’t worry, I’m on it!”

 

“Alright. Um...Everyone good to go?” Futaba asked the large group, screens vanishing as she tapped her fingers together nervously.

 

“Hell yeah! With this many’a us, shadows wont stand a chance!” Tatsumi- san cheered, pumping one fist in the air, holding it there awkwardly for a long minute before turning pink. “What? Why’re you all starin’?”

 

“...he reminds me of Ryuji.” Shiho said, Ann softly agreeing with her. “No wonder Akira liked your class so much.”

 

Tatsumi-san startled at the comment. “Wha-who? Me?! I don’t-he stopped-“

 

Shirogane-san smiled and reached for his hand. “I told you, you’re a great teacher. Now come, we can talk about these code names and personas on the way to the others.”

 

***

 

Akira felt himself come back to consciousness in waves of awareness; first the steady, fizzing ache of wounds closed by magic, then the chatter of voices nearby, and last, the horrifying awareness of what had happened before he’d lost consciousness.

 

Ryuji, come to save him, fierce and angry and protective as he’d carried him away from the Shadow.

 

Ryuji, determined and brave as he’d marched over to the thing, shouting and demanding it stop.

 

Ryuji, scared but pleased, lit up with the lightning crackling through him as he’d shouted for the other person there to keep him safe as he’d vanished into the darkness with it and the rest of the prison.

 

Akira forced himself up, ignoring the painful stretch of new skin as he tried not to vomit- _god, how long had it been since he’d come in? How long since he’d eaten?_ \- vaguely registering concerned voices on the edge of his awareness until he was stopped and firmly shoved back down.

 

He turned his face up to glare at whoever it was stopping him, finding his look met by a slightly older boy with silver hair and eyes, watching him with curiosity.

 

Akira shoved back, scowling. “Let go of me.”

 

“You’ve been through a lot, you should rest-” the boy started, voice calm, even, like he was talking to a child, and it only made Akira angrier.

 

“I’ll rest when Ryuji’s safe,” he snapped, shoving back and standing, closing his eyes and breathing to dispel the dizziness.

 

“Look, I know you’re worried, but running in there after getting hurt the way you did fighting your shadow-” the boy started again, still patient and almost chiding, making Akira want to hit him.

 

“No! No you _don’t!_ ” he snapped back, taking a wobbly step towards him. “You have _no idea_ what it’s like to have someone you love taken by someone dangerous and unknown and he _needs me_ -”

 

“ _Don’t._ ” the silver haired boy suddenly interrupted, tone suddenly low and dangerous. “Don’t you _dare_ tell me what I do or don’t know, when I might possibly be the only person who knows _exactly_ how you feel-”

 

He cut himself off, closing his eyes and inhaling sharply as if to calm himself, and then affixing Akira with the same steely-eyed determined look that Akira must be giving him.

 

“Ryuji will be fine for one more night. You’ve been here almost two weeks, you need to get back home and _rest-_ ”

 

“No.”

 

“Joker-” At the sound of that voice, Akira turned, affixing Morgana with the glare he’d been giving the other boy.

 

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” he hissed, the hurt from their argument still fresh, even if the details are blurry ( _a high, angry voice, “oh, what, you think I need_ you _? You’re nothing.”_ )

 

Surprisingly, Morgana backed down, stepping back, ears coming down close to his head, looking ashamed, and Akira almost wanted to stop, to apologize.

 

But instead he turned back to the silver-haired boy. “I’m _not_ leaving here without him.”

 

He looked like he was about to argue again, but before he can speak, the brunette boy, the one Ryuji had left him with, who Akira now recognized as Hanamura-san from Junes, interrupted, “That’s exactly what he said.”

 

Akira turned to him, a guilty sort of delight filling him knowing that Ryuji would, and had done the same for him, and the other boy continued.

 

“I was heading home from work, see, and I ran into him on the floodplain, and he told me he saw his best friend on the Midnight Channel, a-and some other stuff, and...and it reminded me of _you_ , Yu. After...well, y’know.”

  


The silver-haired boy looked startled, then frustrated, replying, pointing at Akira, “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re hurt-”

 

“What wounds?” Akira asked, spreading his arms out a little, staring back defiantly at the incredulous look he was given.

 

“A _Diarahan_ doesn’t just-We don’t have _backup-_ ”

 

“ _Senseiiiiiiiiii!_ ” a voice wailed, and they all turned to see a veritable crowd of people racing towards the little group, Akira’s Tokyo friends and people he knew from town, ones that had always been kind to him-

 

A little, primary colored figure was leading the pack, footsteps squeaking loudly, and it took a long moment for Akira to recognize it as the Junes bear.

 

It collided with Yu with enough force to knock him over, Hanamura-san looking like he was biting back laughter, and Akira was too focused on that to notice the tiny neon orange and green blur heading for him until he was being punched in the side, knocking him off balance, dizziness not helping him regain his balance and sending him back down to the ground.

 

“We were so _worried_ !” Futaba shrieked, dropping down on her knees to hug him. “What _happened_ ? Why are your clothes messed up is this _blood what happened_ -”

 

“I-How’d you-?”

 

“It seems as if the Nav has returned,” Makoto answered, kneeling next to him as well and reaching around the still-clinging Futaba to hug him briefly. “We really were worried about you. Skull most of all.”

 

“Yeah, why isn’t he here with you?” Ann asked, and Akira felt a rush of shame, tears coming to his eyes.

 

“I couldn’t-he-” he stammered, feeling dumb and useless now faced with his friends, costumed and powerful and _expectant_ -

 

A hand settled on his shoulder, gentle and reassuring, and Akira looked up to see Shiho with the same look on her face that she’d worn talking to him on the roof.

 

“Wha-” Akira started, caught off guard on seeing her here, the catalyst for their true start as Phantom Thieves in this world that was both the Metaverse and not, and Shiho’s smile grew a bit before she dropped to her knees and pulled him close, Futaba going with him as she hugged him.

 

“Thank you.” she whispered. “Ann told me everything, and... _thank you_.”

 

Akira felt tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, and he ducked his head into her shirt, swallowing thickly as he muttered, “But I don’t-I _lost-_ ”

 

“Not yet, you haven’t,” Shiho interrupted, pushing him back by the shoulders, looking at him with a fire in her eyes that echoed the one he’d seen over and over on Ann. “You still have us, and we’re going to help you get him back.”

 

“But I don’t have-”

 

“A Persona? Neither do I.”

 

“But it’s not _safe_ -”

 

“Didn’t you say you’re not leaving without him, Persona or not?” another voice asked, and Akira looked over his shoulder to see Yu looking down at him with a wry expression, the rest of the adults standing behind him.

 

Akira almost didn’t want to believe it, so used to fighting for _everything_ by himself, from arguing with this man literally moments before, that he merely gaped for a minute.

 

“...you’re not going to…?” he asked, quiet.

 

Yu shook his head, smile going gentle, “Like _I_ said, I’m probably the only one who knows what you’re going through. God, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but...when I was your age-”

 

“Oh my _god_ , we’re not _that_ old, stop it!” the brunette groaned, elbowing him but still grinning.

 

Yu laughed, as he continued, “Someone I loved was taken from me. Granted, I didn’t lose my Persona, but it sure felt like I was going to at times. And...well, you’re a wild card, right?”

 

Akira felt his eyes widen a bit, the term almost never used outside of the Velvet Room, and Yu nods at the unspoken question.

 

“Do you have access to your other Personae?” Yu asked, and Akira felt a jolt of surprise. He hadn’t even _thought_ about that-

 

He searched his mind, calling forth the names and images of the masks he’d had with him at the end of it all, but came up disappointed, clenching his fist as he shook his head, disappointment filling him again.

 

Yu nodded. “Alright. We’ll get your friend here out-”

 

“No.” Shiho interrupted, releasing Akira and standing, “I’m not letting my friends fight alone anymore.”

 

Yu sighed, a hand going up to his forehead, and Satonaka-san stepped forward and touched his shoulder.

 

“C’mon, there’s so many of us, they’ll be fine.” she laughed, face turning playful as she gestured to Hanamura-san. “Plus, you took me in to rescue Yukiko when I didn’t have one, and it was just you and _Yosuke_ -”

 

“Hey!” Hanamura-san grumbled, reaching out to shove her face. “And what a poor decision that was, you just went and _ran off_!”

 

“Yeah, well, I know Suzui-chan won’t do that, right?” the cop chirped, shoving back, winking at Akira and Shiho. “I’ve never had any problems with her and Kurusu-kun!”

 

Both Amagi-san and Tatsumi-san squinted at her, but Yu didn’t seem to notice, nodding decisively. “Alright then, as long as you’re both safe, it’s fine. Is everyone prepared?”

 

Shiho helped Akira to his feet again, Futaba detaching herself long enough to let him, and squeezed his hand. “We’ll find him, alright?”

 

And for the first time in a while, Akira started to believe things were going to be okay.

 

***

 

Ryuji woke to the sound of slamming, of a voice, hissed and angry.

 

“I told you to bring _him_ not _this_ useless-”

 

Ryuji knew that voice, the sound of it dredging up memories from his foggy brain, but before he could fully remember, another voice spoke.

 

“The boy made me an offer-”

 

“And you should have _refused_ . He means _nothing_ to me.”

 

“Not even as bait, si-”

 

There’s a harsh, exploding sound, easily recognizable as gunfire, and Ryuji flinched backward, opening his eyes.

 

The first thing he saw was Akira, on the ground, bleeding from a single, awful, round wound in the center of his forehead, blood streaming from it and his mouth, and Ryuji wanted to both vomit and scream, but was too paralyzed by the sight to do anything.

 

There was another click, and the sound of it, the pure instinct of danger, was what tore Ryuji’s eyes off the body to look up.

 

Akechi stood above him, watching him with that sickening look he’d had on his face the last time they’d seen one another, something that was an unholy mix of a smirk and a grimace behind the barrel of his gun, but everything about him looked _wrong_.

 

Long, jagged likes, almost like cracks, covered his whole body, some gaping, showing more of the red-and-black substance that seemed to be inside of him, most thin, giving him the appearance of a broken doll.

 

“Stop _looking_ at me!” Akechi hissed, kicking Ryuji’s bad leg, “You don’t _deserve_ to pity me, not after what you and those _fools_ did. _You_ caused this.”

 

“H-h-wha-” Ryuji stammered, eyes flicking down back to Akira, only to let a small, wounded noise escape him when he noticed the body had vanished. “Where-”

 

“God, you’re still such an _idiot,_ ” Akechi spit out, “You _saw_ the two of them in the same room, you _agreed_ to come with the shadow, and you still don’t get it? I knew you were _stupid_ , but not this much.”

 

The insults hurt, but Ryuji had heard worse, had learned to ignore the comments on his intelligence at school, but his mind felt so foggy, moving thoughts feeling as if they were moving at the pace of molasses, that he can’t get a grasp on what Akechi was trying to tell him.

 

“Where’s-where is he?” he slurred, trying to stand but stopped by something on his wrists holding him back, by the sheer pain in his head.

 

Akechi snarled, and in a flash of movement, Ryuji’s head exploded again with pain, sending him back down to the ground, and Akechi’s weight is suddenly on his bad leg, an eerie reflection of what had happened two years ago.

 

“At least make yourself _useful_ and give me another bodyguard,” Ryuji heard, vision wavering as he started to slip back into unconsciousness, the sharp pressure of pain on his bone the only thing keeping him hanging on.

 

And then there was even more weight, even more pain, the familiar, haunting snap of a bone breaking, of something leaving him, and Ryuji heard an echo of a yell, of tears coming down his face, as he slipped back into darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> part 2 coming soon......


End file.
